Supporting the historic Emerald Necklace park system

Month: February 2015

My students at the prison where asked to shovel over and over again during this past month of blizzards, over 100 inches total fell so far this winter. Not only do they shovel every year for the Emerald Necklace Parks, this year they were asked to even shovel the State House and other areas for public safety as well as shoveling the train tracks to keep the trains running! Below is a letter written to the Department of Corrections this week thanking the men:

“I don’t know how to thank the inmates for working to clear the red line. Please please tell them of my heartfelt thanks. I have terminal cancer and work at MGH, after having a tough chemo, I was pushed and shoved for 3 weeks now on to a bus, then a shuttl, then a train. It has been taking me 4 hours to get to MGH everyday from Braintree. It is one thing to stand in line to get on a shuttle when you are healthy, but quite another when you are 67 years old and weak from chemotherapy. Please relate to these men how grateful I am for their hard work and help. May God Bless You All!!! All of us from Braintree are so grateful.”

Yesterday in class I asked the men to draw pictures of the snow and to compose a few words about their experience beside their cold hands and hunger.

We planted paper whites, started some dahlia tubers for cuttings and learned how to take stem cuttings. Spring can’t come soon enough …